Sharp decline in labourer recruitment in Dubai

Import of labourers has slowed to a trickle, says recruiter.

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The number of construction workers arriving in Dubai has practically ground to a halt in the last few months, a Dubai-based company which specialises in recruiting workers from India and Pakistan has said.

A spokesperson from the Dhoria International Job Centre said the company was recruiting between 200 and 400 workers a month last year, but in the last four months it had only recruited a total of four workers.

“It has gone from 50 to 100 a week to one a month,” the spokesperson said.

Dhoria International Job Centre has been recruiting construction workers to the Middle East for over 30 years, has been involved in projects such as Dubai Festival City, SkiDubai and Dubai International Airport and has worked with companies such as Al Habtoor, Arabtec, Balfour Beatty and Laing O'Rourke.

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It focuses mainly on recruiting from India and Pakistan and workers are charged three months salary upfront before they fly to the emirates.

The standard length of contracts is three years. While most workers usually stay in Dubai for the full three years, some were now being sent home early due to the slowdown in the Dubai construction market.

The spokesperson reported that last year the company recruited 300 workers for one well-known Dubai construction firm, who he declined to name, and 200 of them have already been sent home.

While the emirate may be seeing a drop off in recruitment, the company is seeing an increase in demand for workers in Saudi Arabia and it has been contracted by a large Saudi construction company to recruit 1,500 workers for a project due to start in six weeks.

As a result, the company is currently in the process of setting up an office in Jeddah.